What do you think?

Let us know if you think hotels are doing enough for the disabled in our comments section below.

New ADA regulations for hotels

Pools and spas: Requires accessible means of entry for pools and spas, which can be a lift or a sloped entry. Pools with more than 300 linear feet around the lip will need a second means of entry.

Reservations: Hotel operators must ensure that an accessible room, reserved by phone or online, is held for the guest. In addition, if a traveler with disabilities requests information on the accessible and non-accessible features of the property, the hotel must provide some basic information.

Power mobility devices: Requires properties to modify policies as they relate to access for all power-driven mobility devices, such as Segways and modified golf carts.

Service animals: Provides clarification on what constitutes a service animal. The Department of Justice defines a service animal as a dog or a miniature horse. In the past, members of the lodging industry association were told by guests that their snake, monkey, rat or other animal was considered a service animal.

Parking: Requires an increase in van-accessible parking spaces and an accessible space in valet parking areas. Also addresses pathways between the parking facility and the property.

Exercise equipment: Requires accessible pathways in and around exercise rooms as well as access to various pieces of equipment.

Front desk service counters: Changes a front desk service counter for height and depth requirements. If a hotel is in compliance with the 1994 standards, no changes are needed until a future renovation.

Source: American Hotel & Lodging Association

It’s a warm day, you’ve just arrived at your hotel after a tiring flight, and you’re craving a relaxing dip in the pool. But you’re in a wheelchair.

These days, only some hotel chains have portable devices that can lower disabled people into the water. Even then, the equipment is not always readily available, nor are most staff members trained to operate the lifts. That, says the Department of Justice, just isn’t acceptable.

Come March 15, all hotels with pools and spas will be required to install fixed lifts that must be in place as long as the facilities are open to guests. The approaching deadline has the hotel industry in a quandary, as industry lobbyists press the federal government to give them more time to meet guidelines that they insist have been unclear and in some cases financially onerous.

The lifts themselves typically cost $3,000 and up, plus the cost of installation, which in some cases requires boring into pool decks and electrically grounding the devices. And for properties with multiple pools and hot tubs, a lift is needed for each one. Portable devices that can be moved around are not permitted unless they can be retrofitted so they are bolted to the pool deck.

The requirement is among a set of new regulations approved in 2010 under the Americans with Disabilities Act that affect most public places, such as banks, stores, movie theaters, state and local government entities, public swimming pools and hotels. Within the hospitality industry, the pool lift regulation has attracted the most attention.

Some San Diego hotels say they’re scrambling to meet the looming deadline, while others declined to discuss their position, reluctant to comment on what has been a contentious issue for the industry.

Hilton Worldwide, which has a number of branded hotels in the county, ultimately declined to comment after repeated requests for interviews, deferring to the American Hotel & Lodging Association to speak for the industry as a whole.

“Once you start dealing with the fact this is civil rights, people are concerned that they don’t want their comments to be taken the wrong way, as big business against the disabled community,” said Kevin Maher, senior vice president for governmental affairs with the lodging association. “We want the disabled at our hotels, and we want to meet what their requests are.”

Richard Skaff, an advocate for the disabled who runs the Northern California-based Designing Accessible Communities, wonders just how committed the hospitality industry is.

“They’re thinking, ‘Why should I spend $5,000 on a pool lift when it’s not going to be used because there isn’t anyone with disabilities who will stay at my hotel, and if there are, they’re so few,’ ” said Skaff, who became a paraplegic after a fall about 30 years ago. “When I go to Maui and stay there, I have to climb out of my wheelchair, down onto the surface of the pool and then into the pool because there is no lift, and at 68 years old that’s getting harder and harder to do.”

The lodging association, while recognizing that its members must comply with the new standards, remains dissatisfied with the answers it is getting from the Justice Department and this week filed a request with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder seeking a “common sense interpretation” of the pool and spa entry requirements. As part of that request, it is seeking an extension of the March 15 deadline, which it says will leave many operators open to litigation and fines if not met.

After asking the Justice Department for months to clarify whether portable lifts would be acceptable, it finally received a response in late January and again last month emphasizing the need for fixed lifts. While the department offered some wiggle room by saying the mandate had to be met as long as it was “readily achievable,” the department declined to clarify what that meant, leading to more confusion within the industry.

Rather than risk not meeting the deadline, San Diego hotel owner Robert Rauch said he’s spending close to $9,000 to purchase and install permanent lifts at his Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites by Hilton, even though he purchased a portable device seven years ago.

Rauch, like other hoteliers, worries that the lifts, when left out all day, will be a magnet for children who will want to play on the equipment, posing a liability issue.

“We had (a portable lift) and we’ve never been asked to deploy it in seven years, and I don’t believe we’ll ever be asked to deploy it now,” Rauch said. “I think it’s an inappropriate law, but we’ll follow it to the letter.”

Elvin Lai, owner of the Ocean Park Inn in Pacific Beach, said he’s soldiering ahead with plans to install lifts at his oceanfront property, which has a pool and a spa, but worries about making such a large investment in something he’s skeptical will be used much, if at all.

“We’ve always had a portable lift and have pulled it out twice since 2003,” Lai said. “Don’t get me wrong, we totally want to be compliant. We have a lot of handicapped guests who come here, and they don’t complain and they don’t ask for the lift. This just sounds like more lawyers who want to find a way to sue hotels for not meeting regulations.”

While regulations governing access for the disabled are typically enforced through formal complaints and litigation, the Justice Department makes clear the importance of broadening accessibility in public places.

“People with disabilities were, for too long, excluded from participating in many recreational activities, including swimming,” the department wrote when it published the new regulations in 2010. “The requirements for newly constructed and existing pools will ensure that, going forward, people with disabilities can enjoy the same activities — a community swim meet, private swim lessons, a hotel pool — at the same locations and with the same independence, ease, and convenience as everyone else.”

Wes Johnson, president of Accessible San Diego, an information center that works with local hotels on issues related to the disabled, said he was surprised that no one in the local lodging industry had reached out to his group for advice or assistance.

A disabled veteran who uses a wheelchair, Johnson said he looks forward to getting into the hotel pool when he’s traveling to relieve pain in his back. But more often than not, he has found that even at hotels with pool lifts, it’s difficult to find someone on staff who knows how to set them up, or they simply don’t function properly.

As for the hospitality industry’s claim that permanently installed lifts pose a safety issue for children, Johnson calls that a “bogus argument.”

He adds, “When hotels are saying those kinds of things, it’s sort of obvious the industry association is not communicating to their membership the appropriate position on this.”

With the deadline approaching, some pool supply companies say requests for pool lifts are accelerating, suggesting that a number of hotels are taking the mandate seriously.

“In the last 30 to 60 days, we’ve been getting as many as 30 calls an hour,” said Lynn Huso, director of sales for Minnesota-based Commercial Pool. “One out of three is getting a quote or buying. Two out of three are ignoring it.”